Last night I stumbled upon a couple of screenshots of Rhapsdoy DR2 running under Bochs, and that brought along a couple of long-forgotten memories into my head. So a quick list then.
BeOS
When I used it: a couple of years ago, not very long before Be Inc. went into oblivion. I first used BeOS 5 Personal Edition, after reading about BeOS in a Romanian magazine (XtremPC, one of its earlier numbers). I then managed to use the “real” BeOS5, and, later on, the likes of Zeta.
How much: pretty much. I even started working on a couple of small BeOS applications — a 3D pong game and, at some point, a YIM client which never got to the point where it worked. I absolutely loved the BeOS API.
Why I’m not using it anymore: at this very point, I really don’t need it anymore. However, if I’ll ever get a laptop which is integrally supported by BeOS, it would my main option.
What I liked about it: very light and Unix-ish. It was very responsive, and although some applications were relatively prone to crash, it wasn’t really such a bummer.
Amiga Workbench
When I used it: Even more years ago, on an Amiga. Later on I fiddled with it using some Amiga emulators.
How much: not much, I only played a few games and fiddled with computer-generated nois^H^H^H^H music.
Why I’m not using it anymore: I don’t have an Amiga
What I liked about it: it was pretty light and had a lot of intensely geeky applications. Paper scores are no fun compared to a good ol’ tracker.
NeXTStep
When I used it: a couple of years ago (I’m getting a pattern here)
How much I used it: non-stop for about two months I think, I absolutely loved it. I still like the desktop and I’ve used WindowMaker for years, not to mention getting all mydocks, regardless of their type, on the right. I’m still hoping I’ll be able to make OS X behave relatively similar to it.
Why I’m not using it anymore: technically speaking, I am using it (OS X basically is NeXTStep). Otherwise, I don’t have a NeXTStation. I do have that x86-able version somewhere around here but NeXTStations are simply too inherently cool.
What I liked about it: the desktop experience. It’s simply incredibly ergonomic and quick, and I also loved the hardware it ran on (I used it on a NeXT Cube). Ironically, I hated Objective-C, and I don’t really like it now either.
